


Reckless Humor

by TigerOfTheTundra



Series: Starlight--Paladin Talis arc 1 [6]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Dungeons & Dragons - All Media Types
Genre: Captivity, Chains, Drow, Forced Labor, Manacles, Slavery, Underdark, backstory time!, character interactions, drow stronghold, gnomish lore, muzzle (mention), real fun times ahead, urine (mention)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25211779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerOfTheTundra/pseuds/TigerOfTheTundra
Summary: A look into Talis' past, before he reached Neverwinter: deep in the Underdark, in drow captivity, Talis met others like him. He heard tales and sayings and ideas he'd never considered much before
Series: Starlight--Paladin Talis arc 1 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681462
Kudos: 1





	Reckless Humor

**Author's Note:**

> The first proper backstory piece! Featuring Talis, and two gnomish friends he met. This piece is on the lighter side for Underdark-based memories, but... does, in fact, take place in the drow stronghold. This is also before Talis became a paladin, too. Here, he's just a lost kid trying to keep it together

Talis and the two gnomes had been assigned to filling and storing giant barrels of water. Mostly it meant Talis alternated between filling them and carrying them to the waiting cart, as both gnomes together struggled to lift even one bucket of well water into the giant barrels. He worried they’d fall in, the way they’d balance on anything available to pass the bucket upwards. The drow had left them cuffed and chained since they arrived, and even Talis struggled with simple tasks like this with his movement impeded so.

“We could taint it.” The older gnome, an energetic trickster who introduced herself with a different name every time she was asked--Jess or Jex or something, grinned up at him as he lifted the newest barrel. Her younger companion looked shocked. They were new, scared, still cried at night. Talis just shook his head. 

“With what?” he asked wearily, glancing to the guard nearby. The great furred ones, quaroth? Quaoth? His Undercommon was… weak at best. But he’d been trying to learn. 

“Well I’ve had to go for a while now and…” She glanced between herself and the barrel. He stopped all the way now, looking confused. The young gnome began to giggle, just about as Talis realized she meant urine. 

“Oh, gross!” But even he was starting to smile, embarrassed by his own amusement. The guard turned to eye them, and Talis quickly sealed up the barrel. “No, they’d just make us drink it or something.” He carried the barrel over and walked back. It was one thing to annoy the drow guards--they were usually moody if they had to watch their captives, he’d found--but he didn’t know what the furred giants would do. They looked powerful.

When he got back to help steady the water bucket, though, the older gnome was shooting him a dirty look over her companion’s head. They filled the barrel in silence for a little longer, until the guard seemed to move back to glancing down the hall. As Talis lifted the next barrel, the gnome climbed up to look him in the eye. The younger one leaned against the edge of the well, eyes unfocused, arms as close around their body as the chains allowed.

“How long have you been here?” she asked, a low-voice hiss. “A week? Two?” Talis shrugged. He… didn’t know. “A while, at least, right?” She was right in that, it was… He’d accepted this was where he was. But already he was looking over at their companion. It had been the previous work period, previous makeshift day, when they and a few more had been unceremoniously shuffled into the outpost. “So lay off the kid. Let them have a little hope, okay?”

“I-I…” Talis hadn’t-- He nodded, unsure and embarrassed. As he carried the barrel off he found himself shooting her frustrated glances. She seemed to be chatting in Gnomish to the distracted youth and ignoring him. 

  
  


A drow guard, bored, had wandered over a couple hours later. He clearly just needed to pick up the cart of barrels, but he idled, complaining about their work speed, needling at them to work faster. Talis shuffled quicker back to the two gnomes when he set down his last barrel, hoping to spare them the ire. Too late he reached them, as the drow struck the smaller gnome across the head, sending them sprawling. Talis dove between them, only for the guard to kick him in the head. It took a few blows before the drow lost interest, and Talis to stumble up to being led away. 

It wouldn’t be the first night he spent chained up outside the slave pen. He’d dozed here, a little--sometimes a drow on guard duty would kick at him, but it was never more than a bored desire to get a reaction. He couldn’t speak to the captives escorted back--they brought back that damn muzzle--but he tried to look unconcerned, smile a little. Everyone came back tonight, and no one seemed to have any new outstanding injuries. A couple did still limp. A fellow captive gave him an unsurprised look, and he shrugged. He could see the metal barred door to the pen from here. He’d be fine.

Most folks settled quickly, finding their claimed corners and usual companions. To his surprise, the two gnomes from his work detail found a spot very near the pen gate. The younger settled where they were led, curling in close, while the older glanced toward Talis. Only one guard would pass through here on occasion, but they’d met out violence to anyone talking to Talis if he was out here. He tried to convey this with his expression, shoo them away with a nod, he couldn’t let them get in trouble too. But she ignored him, just stroked the younger gnome’s hair to untangle it.

“When Garl Glittergold found the first gnomes they all toiled alone,” she said softly, with the steady voice of a storyteller, “separately searching for gems and metals in the unforgiving stone. Their faces were gaunt, for they had yet to discover food. Their eyes were downcast, for they had yet to discover one another. Garl’s heart went out to them, and he gathered them all around him. As they looked to him he told them the tale of his journey.”

Talis hadn’t heard a tale like it. Then again, he’d never met a gnome until he’d been taken here. He kept his attention on the halls, looking for the guard on duty, keeping lookout. He couldn’t let himself lose focus. The gnome’s voice wove in and out of his attention.

“Garl said, ‘I began a journey of exploration with my dear friend Moradin, who also sought to explore these deep, uncharted caves. It was a great undertaking,’” and here she snickered, “‘but we went forth, digging and exploring. Moradin had little use for my humor, so when he tired of me we went our different ways.’” Talis smiled a little at that, remembering earlier. 

“‘But I had gone such a ways into the earth, that I figured I would explore a little deeper. That was when I found all of you! So I alone called to you, and gathered you about me.

“‘And I said, ‘I began a journey of exploration with my dear friend Moradin, who also sought to explore these deep, uncharted caves. It was a great undertaking,” the gnome snickered, “but we went forth, digging and exploring. Moradin had little use for my humor, so when he tired of me we went our different ways.’” No sign of any movement. Most inside the pen that Talis could see seemed to be asleep.

“‘But I had gone such a ways into the earth, that I figured I would explore a little deeper. That was when I found all of you! So I alone called to you, and gathered you about me.

“‘And I said, ‘I began a journey of exploration with my dear friend Moradin, who also sought to explore these deep, uncharted caves.’” Talis blinked, attention called back to the tale. Hadn’t she said this part already? “‘It was a great undertaking, but we went forth, digging and exploring. Moradin had little use for my humor, so when he tired of me we went our different ways.’” She looked over at his confused expression, and grinned.

“‘But I had gone such a ways into the earth,’” she continued, “‘that I figured I would explore a little deeper. That was when I found all of you! So I alone called to you, and gathered you about me.

“‘And I said,” her voice cut off, as a guard walked by. Talis stared down, watching their boots pass, but he kept going over the story. Had she repeated herself? She had, hadn’t she? When he looked up, trying to ask with just his expression, why had she repeated herself?

She just grinned, and began again when the guard had left. “And I said, ‘I began a journey of exploration with my dear friend Moradin, who also sought to explore these deep, uncharted caves. It was a great undertaking, but we went forth, digging and exploring. Moradin had little use for my humor, so when he tired of me we went our different ways.

“‘But I had gone such a ways into the earth, that I figured I would explore a little deeper. That was when I found all of you! So I alone called to you, and gathered you about me.’” Talis couldn’t look away now. She winked.

“‘So I told you the tale of my journey, which I’m sure you’re glad is over now,’” she said. Talis blinked once, then snickered, feeling quite chagrined. Ahh, she’d got him. She still kept watching him, as he shook his head and smiled. Beside her, the younger gnome slept soundly. With a glance down the hall, she looked him over.

“Get some sleep,” she said. “And don’t forget how you feel now.” She closed her eyes and seemed to doze off right then and there. Talis sat quietly, still somehow smiling to himself. He… did feel good. Or, like smiling, at least. And she was right, there wasn’t much he could do here, restrained even more than normal. He leaned against the post and let himself close his eyes, still thinking the tale over.

It was only the second before sleep that he thought to wonder why she told it in Common instead of Gnomish.

A few cycles of work and rest later, Talis found himself hauling oversized stone blocks from one side of a room to another. Usually these clearly pointless tasks annoyed him, but today he felt preoccupied. He was working with the younger gnome, who struggled to lift even the smaller blocks, who still hadn’t spoken much. When their irate drow guard turned his back, Talis caught the gnome’s attention with a waved hand. He twisted his face into a mocking imitation of the drow’s. His companion looked startled, then smiled, ducking their head to hide a small laugh. 

When the drow left the room for a moment, Talis paused. “You can take a rest, if you need. I’m not tired yet.” The gnome shuffled in place, shrugged, and kept pushing at their block. “Uh…. I’m Talis, by the way. What’s your name?”

“Quinn.” The gnome blinked. Looked up at him. “Call me Quinn.” They glanced at the doorway, then sighed, leaning against the block.

“Nice to meet you, Quinn,” Talis said.

**Author's Note:**

> And we get to meet some of Talis' friends!!! Jex and Quinn are great, I'll probably end up writing about them on their own someday ^^ But they didn't know each other before--Jex is a deep gnome, and Quinn is a forest gnome; they were abducted at different times. They'll both be in later stories, too. Less... light-hearted ones than this, I'm afraid. But I wanted to let the first Underdark story be... a complex memory
> 
> That, and some of the things Jex said then have been more on his mind, since meeting Ace
> 
> Also, as a note, any short stories taking place from before Neverwinter aren't necessarily memories Talis... remembers, per se. They're more thematically appropriate, or something he remembers a piece of, or something influencing his behavior in a previous or latter story. So take that as you will! But if he's not consciously acting on a part of his backstory in a "current time" story, it's likely that he doesn't remember it. Or doesn't want to think about it. But it is a memory, whether he actually remembers it or not, so if things are contradictory later on, that's why
> 
> Hopefully I'll be able to get back to the Starlight arc finale--I just moved and am still unpacking and setting up my new home ^^ But, I finally got to editing and posting this one!! It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to properly go through it ^^; I think I was nervous because this is the first story that takes place in the Underdark, before Nevewinter...


End file.
